NBC and Peacock drop BATTLESTAR GALACTICA reboot reboot plans

After several years in development hell, NBC and Peacock have abandoned their plans to reboot the Battlestar Galactica reboot.

Back in September 2019, NBC tapped Sam Esmail, the creative force behind Mr. Robot, to develop a fresh take on the Battlestar Galactica franchise for their Peacock streaming service. The franchise had been created by Glen A. Larson and aired a single, huge-budgeted season on ABC in 1978, opening to enormous ratings but shedding them by season's end to be cancelled. A spin-off show, Galactica 1980, aired a single, critically-derided half-season in 1980 before being likewise cancelled.

Ronald D. Moore and David Eick resurrected the show with a grittier reboot in 2003, informed by the War on Terror and the Iraq War. The show ran for four seasons and two spin-off TV movies, concluding in 2010. A further straight-to-DVD movie followed in 2013, and a spin-off show, Caprica, aired a single season in 2010-11. This reboot, produced by NBC for the Sci-Fi Channel (later SyFy), was vastly more acclaimed, winning a Peabody and a Hugo Award.

Despite Esmail's high profile, the project struggled to get off the ground, possibly because Esmail only wanted to write and produce, leaving day-to-day showrunning duties to another producer. Michael Lesslie initially took on the project, only to later depart. Derek Simonds came on board in January 2024 in what appears now to have been a last-ditch effort to save the project.

Confusingly, Lesslie and Esmail made competing statements, the former stating the new show would be a fresh reboot of the premise and Esmail saying the new show would exist within the 2003 show's continuity. In January 2022, Universal announced that the new show would exist alongside a fresh feature film take on the franchise, to be written by X-Men screenwriter Simon Kinberg.

Now NBC have confirmed they are terminating their involvement in the project. No reason was given, but it was likely the long gestation time and expense (albeit minor so far) spent on going nowhere, Esmail not having the same profile and clout that he did back in 2019 when the project was getting off the ground, and the considerably more hostile streaming climate, with Peacock not performing as well as it could have done.

Universal are now shopping the project to other potentially interested parties

New BATTLESTAR GALACTICA movie and TV projects will be set in a "shared universe"

Two new Battlestar Galactica reboots are currently in the works at NBC/Peacock and Universal. The first is a new television series, to be co-written and produced by Sam Esmail (Mr. Robot) and showrun by Michael Lesslie (the Assassin's Creed movie). The second is a feature film, to be written by Simon Kinberg (X-Men: Dark Phoenix).

It was already a confused situation, with Esmail stating that the new TV show will share continuity with the Ronald D. Moore iteration of the series, with Moore reading the pilot script and giving his blessing to the project. However, Lesslie disagreed, describing the show as a total reboot of the premise. Lesslie subsequently departed the project and no replacement has been named.

At first the movie was also described a total reboot of the premise, but in a fresh interview with Collider, Kinberg has now claimed that the film will occupy a "shared universe" with Esmail's iteration, and is "working closely" with him on the project. Whether that means both movie and TV show will be set in the RDM version of the story and will be heavily related (sharing actors and characters), or one will be a prequel to the other, or the two are in a shared universe but aren't related to the RDM spin of the idea, is completely unclear.

It is also entirely possible that "shared universe" and "continuity" have simply now become Hollywood buzzwords which people say even though they're not technically correct.

Battlestar Galactica's premise is compelling but limited: a race of robots known as the Cylons destroy the Twelve Colonies, twelve planets inhabited by humans in an unclear time period. The surviving humans band together under the last surviving major warship, the battlestar (combined carrier/battleship) Galactica, in a ragtag, fugitive fleet and run across the galaxy in search of the fabled and legendary "Thirteenth Colony," Earth. In 1978 Glen A. Larson wrote and produced a first version of the franchise which was very popular, but cripplingly expensive and cancelled after one season (as was a terrible, low-budget spinoff, Galactica 1980, which saw the fleet arriving at contemporary Earth). In 2003, Ronald D. Moore created a total reboot of the premise which ran for four seasons on SyFy, winning multiple Hugo and Peabody Awards and becoming one of the most critically feted shows on television. The show was well-received for most of its run, but ended on a highly controversial, divisive note. This iteration of the franchise spun off a prequel series, Caprica, which was cancelled after one season, and a further pilot for another series, Blood & Chrome, which did not proceed to series. There have also been successful video and board games based on this version of the series.

The decision to reboot BSG again, whether in a new continuity or not, has also received a mixed reaction. The Ronald D. Moore version of the story, despite its flaws, is widely regarded as definitive. Given the tonal disparity between the two early versions of the premise (a cheesy space opera and a more psychologically convincing, post-9/11 mediation on the ethics of war and terrorism), it's unclear what a third version of the story can do that has already not been done.

The creative talent involved has also been criticised; Esmail is a superb writer and director, but he has made it clear he will be relatively hands-off on the series and is more setting it up before heading off to other projects (dismaying those who only though the project promising because of his involvement). Lesslie's only credit of note was a failed video game adaptation, and Kinberg has arguably only worked on two decent projects (X-Men: Days of Future Past, although that was a collaboration with the much better Jane Goldman, and as a writer on Star Wars: Rebels), with almost all of his other work being disastrously awful, most recently the terrible Apple+ series Invasion and a series of dud comic book movies for Fox, including X-Men: Apocalypse, Fantastic Four and Dark Phoenix (a second missed bite of that cherry, since he also made a hash of the same idea in X-Men: The Last Stand).

According to Kinberg, they still haven't found a director for the Battlestar Galactica movie, so don't hold your breath on that one. The TV show has several scripts completed and is apparently ready to move forward, but pre-production has not formally begun yet and a series order has not been given, suggesting further development is required. They also need to find a new showrunner to replace Lesslie, assuming Esmail is still not keen on taking up that role himself.

Universal developing a BATTLESTAR GALACTICA movie unrelated to the new TV series

In a slightly confusing move, Universal is pressing ahead with a Battlestar Galactica movie project at the exact same time it is developing a new television series, via NBC's Peacock service.

Simon Kinberg - the writer of X-Men: Apocalypse, Dark Phoenix and X-Men: The Last Stand who inexplicably keeps getting work - has been hired to co-produce and write the film. Dylan Clark, who has helped mastermind the highly successful Planet of the Apes reboot series and is currently producing The Batman, will work with Kinberg on the project.

The new BSG film will be a ground-up reboot of the classic premise, which sees the humans of the Twelve Colonies suffer a brutal attack by the robotic Cylons and forced to flee into space in search of the mythical "Thirteenth Colony" of Earth.

The Peacock project is being produced by Sam Esmail and Michael Lesslie. Esmail originally planned a show that intersects with the TV version of the franchise produced by Ronald D. Moore in 2003-09, but since taking a back seat on the project, it sounds like Lesslie is also pursuing a reboot of the premise.

The idea of two versions of the same story being in production at the same time feels weird, but not completely unprecedented. There are no less than three adaptations of Resident Evil in pre-production, all set in different universes: a live-action, post-apocalyptic Netflix show; a live-action new film based on the first two video games; and an animated film taking place in the video game timeline. Paramount are also planning to relaunch their Star Trek film series with movies set in a different timeline to the TV shows currently underway at CBS All Access.

The BSG movie project is not guaranteed to move forwards. Universal have been developing a new film version of the franchise since the Moore TV show wrapped in 2009. Bryan Singer worked on the project for a couple of years (having previously been attached to a TV version pre-Moore), whilst writers Jack Paglen and Lisa Joy also took tilts at the script. France Lawrence was also attached to direct at one point, but has since dropped out. The problem is likely tied to the budget, with the premise requiring a hefty cost but the profile of the franchise (even the much-praised, multi-award-winning Ron Moore version still only has a cult following) meaning it's difficult to justify a large expense.

More news as it develops.

Hulu option WILD CARDS for television, put two series into active development

Streaming service Hulu have optioned the rights to George R.R. Martin's Wild Cards superhero universe and are developing two potential TV series based on the setting.

Martin created the Wild Cards setting in the early 1980s, using the roleplaying game Superworld to develop the world and premise. Martin and his initial group of players, many of whom were drawn from his local Santa Fe and Albuquerque writers' groups, created the basic setting and many of the characters were their player-characters from the game. Following the failure of his 1983 novel The Armageddon Rag, Martin moved away from novel writing to focus on a burgeoning Hollywood scripting career but hit on the idea of turning the roleplaying game into a series of short stories and anthologies, a "shared world" as it was then termed.

The first book in the series, Wild Cards, was released in 1987 and promptly sold over 100,000 copies, making it a wild success. Martin and co-editor Melinda Snodgrass (Star Trek: The Next Generation) continued working on the series, bringing in new writers and soliciting new stories from older ones, throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Martin credits the series and its high sales with keeping his name in the eye of publishers, restoring his commercial reputation after The Armageddon Rag and helped pave the way for the publication of A Game of Thrones in 1996. There was a brief pause in the series in the late 1990s and another in the early 2000s as various publishers cycled through the series (which started with Bantam and moved to Baen and then iBooks). Tor Books picked up the series in 2008 with Inside Straight, the first in a "new generation" of books, and more have followed. As of November 2018, 27 books have been published in the series to date with sales in the low millions.

The premise of the series is that, in an alternative 1946, an alien virus is released over New York City. 90% of these infected by the virus die instantly ("Drawing the Black Queen"). 9% are transformed into deformed freaks ("Jokers"). 1% gain amazing superpowers ("Aces"). Smaller outbreaks spread the virus all over the globe. The bulk of the series takes place contemporary to publication date and explores the ramifications of a world where both superpowers and alien races are known to exist.

SyFy (who are launching their own GRRM adaptation, Nightflyers, next month) optioned the series almost a decade ago. Their parent company Universal re-optioned the rights with a view to both film and TV applications, and have now placed the project with Universal Cable Productions and Hulu. Andrew Miller (The Secret Circle) is to act as showrunner and executive producer, with Snodgrass and Martin to act as executive producers.

Martin has an exclusivity deal with HBO, which will be airing the final season of Game of Thrones in April 2019, so his role on the Wild Cards series will be hands-off, with Snodgrass expected to take more of an active oversight role.

George R.R. Martin's WILD CARDS optioned for television

Wild Cards, the second-most-well-known book series developed by George R.R. Martin, has been optioned for television with Universal. Up until a few months ago SyFy held the film rights to the book series but they have since lapsed. It looks like SyFy are still involved with the project, but are now coming at it from a different angle.

It is unknown if these superpowered cats will be in the TV show.

Universal Cable Productions has had a hand in a lot of recent successful SFTV shows, including Mr. Robot, 12 Monkeys, Killjoys, The Magicians and Colony, and has partnered with networks and providers including SyFy, USA and Amazon.

Wild Cards is the story of an alternate history of the world, starting in 1946 when an alien virus is released over New York City and the Eastern Seaboard of the United States (although the airborne virus eventually spreads across the globe). Most people are fortunately unaffected, but of the people it does infect, 90% die, 9% turn into mutated freaks and 1% turn into super-powered individuals: heroes...or villains.

The original Wild Cards book was published in 1987. There are now twenty-two books in the series, with a twenty-third to be published later this year. As an anthology series, each Wild Cards book consists of stories written by different authors. Some of the stories are stand-alone, whilst some books are "mosaic" novels, with several stories combining to form one longer narrative, and in some cases several mosaic novels in a row form a trilogy featuring a much larger story. Two of the books in the series are also full-length novels from single authors. George R.R. Martin wrote stories for many of the earlier books in the series but has not done for some time now as he focuses work on A Song of Ice and Fire. Instead, he edits most of the books alongside Melinda Snodgrass.

Snodgrass, a respected SF and fantasy author with more than thirty years in the field and numerous television credits, including a run as a writer and producer on Star Trek: The Next Generation, will be spearheading the new TV project as a producer, alongside SyFy's Gregory Noveck. Martin will not be directly involved in the new TV project (it is rumoured he is working on a top-secret novel, reportedly involving chilly flatulence) due to his exclusive HBO development deal. I'm actually surprised this didn't go to HBO, but their bizarrely risk-averse decisions over the last couple of years may explain that.

Universal re-optioning the franchise as a TV show is a good idea. The series is too big to have worked as a series of films and on TV they will have the flexibility to adapt the whole series, or just certain stories, or even just create a whole new set of stories involving new and established characters. It's also interesting that Universal, SyFy's parent company, has optioned the series themselves. It means that it could end up at SyFy (which, in the wake of The Expanse, isn't as worrying as it would have been a couple of years ago) but it also means it could end up on a cable network or Amazon, who would likely be interested in a hard-edged, unorthodox "superhero" series.

PACIFIC RIM 2 re-greenlit for 2018

It was on, off and now back on again. Universal and Legendary Pictures are moving ahead with Pacific Rim 2, probably for a 2018 release date.

The original movie did reasonably well at the box office (especially internationally) but wasn't a smash hit, so there was a bit of a wait before the sequel was confirmed, originally for 2017. However, having greenlit the movie Universal decided to put it on ice whilst it sorted out its development and production schedules. This has unfortunately meant that Guillermo Del Toro will be unable to return to direct, having already moved on to other projects. However, Del Toro will still co-write (with Jon Spaihts) and produce the movie.

The new director is Steven S. DeKnight, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer veteran who went on to create Spartacus and is currently working on Netflix's Daredevil. The film will be DeKnight's directorial debut.

PACIFIC RIM 2 put on indefinite hold, Del Toro considers new projects

Guillermo Del Toro's next flick was supposed to be Pacific Rim 2, the sequel to his 2012 mech-vs-monster action movie. Although only a modest success in the United States, it was a strong worldwide hit and the movie had been greenlit to begin shooting in the New Year for a 2017 release.

Unfortunately, the movie has run afoul of a political game of football between the production company, Legendary, and the studio releasing the film, Universal (Warner Brothers released the first film, but Universal has inherited the sequel). The two publicly remain committed to the film, and Guillermo Del Toro has said he wants Game of Thrones actress Maisie Williams to join the cast, but it now has no production or release date.

Del Toro has also indicated he may put another film into production before Pacific Rim 2. There is no word on what the film may be, but Del Toro has been talking recently about some of his favourite vampire and horror books, including Alone with the Horrors by Ramsay Campbell, The Vampire Tapestry by Suzy McKee and Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin. With Del Toro producing The Strain, a TV series about vampires (or, more accurately, vampire-zombie hybrids), it may be less likely that his next work will again be about the undead bloodsuckers, but if so he's got some great inspiration going on.

He also mentions Martin's Sandkings, an SF short story that was, prior to A Song of Ice and Fire, probably Martin's best-known work. It was previously filmed (in a very different form) as the first episode of the newer The Outer Limits in 1996, but a more faithful, big-budget feature film version would be brilliant.

A D&D movie set in the FORGOTTEN REALMS is greenlit

The mighty battle for control of the Dungeons and Dragons film rights that has raged since time immemorial - or maybe for about two and a half years - has ended with an unexpected ceasefire and coming together of the former battling parties. This is disappointing to D&D fans, who were anticipating a full-scale Epic Level conflict between titanic powers.

To recap, way back in 1994 TSR, the company that created D&D, ill-advisedly sold the film rights to the game to a budding film student named Courtney Solomon for a song. Solomon went on to make the extremely unimpressive D&D movie released in 2000, starring Jeremy Irons. Solomon's company went on to produce two even weaker sequels, released in 2005 and 2012 respectively.

In the meantime, TSR was gobbled up by Wizards of the Coast, a company on the rise thanks to its Magic: The Gathering card game. WotC was then in turn acquired by Hasbro, one of the biggest toy and hobby companies in the world. Neither WotC nor Hasbro seemed impressed by TSR's decision to sell the D&D film rights to Solomon, but did lend promotional support in getting the films released. However, their support over the third film appeared lukewarm. In particular, Hasbro believed that by releasing the third film to TV (instead of cinema or a home video-first release), Solomon was giving up his legal rights to the franchise. Hasbro entered negotiations with Universal to develop a new D&D movie. Solomon disputed this, more vociferously after Warner Brothers acquired Solomon's rights for a very large sum of money and began developing their own film.

The battle lines were drawn, with neither side willing to back down. Fans didn't really have much to pick between here: Solomon's films had been utterly terrible, but Hasbro's excruciating Transformers movies (despite their high profitability) didn't exactly fill them with confidence either. The one bright spot to Hasbro winning the battle was that it would at least reunite the disparate parts of the film licence together: Solomon had only bought the rights to the core D&D rules. The rights to the iconic worlds (such as Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance) and all of the novels remained with Hasbro. If Hasbro won, they could make a film set in one of the iconic worlds without having to worry about removing elements covered by Solomon's licence.

Fortunately, the new deal eliminates such problems. Universal are the big losers here, having been tossed aside by Hasbro as they have entered into a new deal with Solomon and Warner Brothers. The new deal allows all three parties to collaborate on a new, big-budget D&D film. Interestingly, the announcement confirms that the new film will be set in the Forgotten Realms. This suggests some nice gaming strategy by Hasbro: if the new movie is a huge success and Warner Brothers try to pull out at a later date, they won't be able to make any more films set in the Realms, as Hasbro firmly retains the rights to that setting.

Whether the new film will be any good or not remains to be seen. I have argued before that, despite numerous weaknesses, the Forgotten Realms novel The Crystal Shard could make for an acceptably entertaining action film. However, Hasbro may be keener to create an original story that can more decisively help shift copies of the new Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition game. It'll be interesting to see what direction they take.

Meanwhile, over in the battle for the D&D film rights...

Whilst battle lines are drawn over the Wheel of Time rights situation, there is also the ongoing legal engagement going on between Hasbro and Sweetpea Entertainment over the Dungeons and Dragons film rights to consider.

Peter Jackson to swoop in and turn into an unnecessary nine-film epic starring Orlando Bloom as Legolas as Hank, and Andy Serkis providing mocap for Uni.

The two sides met in a Los Angeles courtroom last September for the first engagement. Hasbro, who own Wizards of the Coast, the current rights-holders for the D&D tabletop game, have been trying to get back the D&D film rights that were sold for almost a song back in the early 1990s by WotC's predecessors, TSR, when they were in financial trouble. Hasbro bought WotC in 1999 and seem to have been dismayed by the films produced by Courtney Solomon's Sweetpea Entertainment, which were low-to-zero budget disasters. The theatrical film Dungeons and Dragons (2000) was a bomb and the TV/DVD sequels Wrath of a Dragon God (2005) and Book of Vile Darkness (2012) were even less successful. Sweetpea contends that by getting movies in production every five years, they have fulfilled the terms of their contract. Hasbro contends that the contract does not include cheap-arse straight-to-TV/DVD projects possibly made for the sole purposes of holding onto the rights.

There are of course bigger names behind the scenes: Warner Brothers are working with Sweetpea on a new, big-budget film project whilst Hasbro has a deal with Universal. The Warner Brothers project seems to be more advanced, with a script in place and some production staff attached, whilst Hasbro and Universal's deal seems less detailed. However, Hasbro also has the rights to the various D&D worlds, such as Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance (which are arguably better-known and more popular than the D&D name itself which does not have any narrative value in itself), not to mention the numerous books published in those worlds. If Hasbro regains the rights, a movie based on the popular Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy or the popular Drizzt Do'Urden character become much more likely.

The legal showdown was inconclusive, with the two sides retiring at the end of September. The judge withdrew to consider a verdict, but urged the two sides to come to an out-of-court settlement. With both studios seeing the possibility of a massive Marvel/Star Wars/DC-style super-franchise encompassing many different films in the D&D brand, I doubt very much that will happen and so lawyers will clash again.

What is interesting is that under the terms of the deal, Sweetpea will apparently have to get another project into production this year or risk losing the rights to Hasbro by default. It'll be interesting to see if this happens, rendering the whole thing moot.

Even more interesting is Universal's role in both this and the Wheel of Time debacle. It may well be that Universal sees a larger brand value in the D&D name (which is much more famous worldwide) and no point in having two epic fantasy brands knocking around at once, so the fate of one of these situations may well impact on the other.

D&D movie battle update

Last year, I reported on the ongoing legal battle over the Dungeons and Dragons movie rights. That battle is now escalating with a series of new court dates set.

To recap, back in the mid-1990s an amateur film-maker named Courtney Solomon bought the D&D movie rights from TSR, the owners of the game. In 1997 TSR was taken over by Wizards of the Coast and in 1999 WotC was bought by Hasbro. Neither company were happy with the deal that TSR had struck, but had no choice to honour it. Solomon's D&D movie was released in 2000 and was a massive flop. However, Solomon retained the film rights by producing a straight-to-DVD sequel, Wrath of the Dragon God, in 2005, followed by a third film, Book of Vile Darkness, in 2010 (although it was not released until 2012).

According to Hasbro, since the sequels were straight-to-DVD films rather than theatrical releases, the deal signed between TSR and Solomon's company, Sweetpea Entertainment, is now null and void. Last year they joined forces with Universal to develop a new D&D movie (the rumour mill is that this may be based on an existing D&D sub-franchise, like Dragonlance or Forgotten Realms, though this seems to be mostly speculation). However, Sweetpea Entertainment and Warner Brothers were also developing a big-budget film with the working title Chainmail. Both sides sued and counter-sued with a bewildering array of claims and counter-claims.

There will now be new legal hearings over the next few weeks. Warner Brothers have escalated proceedings by agreeing to pay Sweetpea's legal fees and offering $5 million for the film rights (which Solomon had bought for $15,000 in 1991), ensuring this could be a serious fight. The courts have made matters even more serious by suggesting that WB developing a script before having bought the rights could constitute copyright infringement, which could mean a startling shift of how Hollywood does business in the future.

More to come, no doubt.

WARCRAFT film moves dates to avoid STAR WARS

The WarCraft movie has moved its release date. Originally slated for release on 18 December 2015, Blizzard and Universal have decided to move the date due to Disney and Lucasfilm committed to the same day for Star Wars: Episode VII.

As related earlier this month, the WarCraft movie will be an origin story, featuring the first conflict between the Alliance under Anduin Lothar and the Orc Horde commanded by Durotan, as related in the first two strategy games in the series. Duncan Jones, the director of Moon and Source Code, will be helming the picture. Rumours that Jones's dad will be cameoing as the king of the goblins cannot be substantiated at this time. Mainly because I made them up.

D&D movie rights battle escalates

A few months ago open (legal) warfare broke out over the ownership of the movie rights to Dungeons and Dragons. Sweetpea Entertainment, the production company responsible for the disastrous 2000 movie starring Jeremy Irons and two (even worse) direct-to-DVD sequels, announced they were developing a new, big-budget movie with Warner Brothers. Hasbro, who own the D&D tabletop game via their subsidiary Wizards of the Coast, fired back that Sweetpea's film rights had expired and Hasbro was now developing a film franchise with Universal Pictures. Hasbro then sued Sweetpea to stop their project going into development.

The point of contention is that the D&D movie rights were sold in the late 1990s, when TSR (the original company that created the game) was sinking into financial ruin and was in dire need of funds. Their deal with Sweetpea, in the person of Courtney Solomon, was born of desperation and featured clauses that Wizards and Hasbro (who bought TSR in 1997) disagreed with, but were unable to contest. However, the deal also included clauses forcing Sweetpea to release a new D&D movie every five years or see the rights revert to the licence-holders (in this case, Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro).

According to Sweetpea, the second and third D&D movies (entering production in 2005 and 2010 respectively) fulfilled this obligation. However, Hasbro has claimed that the second movie being a TV movie (it debuted on SyFy just before it was released on DVD) and the third being a direct-to-DVD movie did not satisfy the clause, due to them not being theatrical releases. As a result, Hasbro claim that the rights have lapsed, leaving them free to develop a new project.

Sweetpea have now counter-sued Hasbro, demanding that their ownership of the movie rights be respected and seeking a ruling preventing Hasbro from using D&D branding and all use of copyrighted D&D elements included in the original deal in any future film project. A hearing has been set up for 25 March, 2014.

If Sweetpea wins the legal case, it leaves Hasbro in the awkward position of being able to proceed with a film based on spin-off properties (including the Forgotten Realms setting and the Drizzt Do'Urden character) but only if they do not use any core elements included in the original Sweetpea deal, including most of the iconic D&D monsters and spells.

Hopefully the March ruling will clear up the mess. As for who to back, I think three disastrous films in succession show that Sweetpea and Solomon should not be allowed to continue developing the film franchise. There's not much Hasbro can do to make things worse, and at least they'd make sure the new film would have a big budget and likely a name director. Sadly, aesthetic and creative arguments will not carry the day, with both sides deploying big-hitting Hollywood lawyers to make their case in court.

Hasbro wins initiative round in ongoing D&D battle

The confrontation between film producer Courtney Solomon, who is developing a new Dungeons and Dragons movie with Warner Brothers, and Hasbro, the parent company of D&D owners Wizards of the Coast, has escalated futher. Hasbro have filed a lawsuit against Solomon and his Sweetpea Entertainment company, asserting that Solomon does not have the rights to make such a film. Hasbro themselves are developing a new D&D movie with Universal.

According to Hasbro, the original deal with Solomon stated that the rights would revert to the IP-holders if Solomon did not produce a sequel film every five years. According to Solomon, that requirement was satisfied by the release of the low-budget TV movie Wrath of the Dragon God in 2005 and by the release of the straight-to-DVD movie Book of Vile Darkness in 2012 (though it entered production in 2010). However, Hasbro assert that this does not satisfy the terms of their contract since straight-to-DVD movies and TV films are legally not the same entities, either as one another or as cinematic features, and as a result the film and TV rights have now reverted to them.

Solomon has come out fighting, saying that he and his company will defend their rights. However, this exchange of views has also confirmed that the previous arbitration (which Solomon was using to show the matter had already been settled) took place in the late 1990s , before even the release of the first movie, and did not address of the sequel issues. As a result of this, Hasbro's position appears to have more merit than previously thought.

Expect this one to run on for a while.

Hasbro dispute Warner Brothers' right to make D&D movie

Hasbro have challenged Warner Brothers' right to make a new Dungeons and Dragons movie. In a balshy statement, Hasbro have started they own the D&D IP and are developing their own movie project with Universal.

Hasbro attempts a backstab on Warner Brothers, hoping for +8 damage.

To recap, Wizards of the Coast, who acquired the Dungeons and Dragons IP in 1997 by buying the original creators of the game, TSR, had previously licensed the film rights to film-maker Courtney Solomon. Solomon produced a film in 2000 that was a box-office bomb. Solomon retained the film rights, producing two live-action sequels. Meanwhile, Hasbro bought Wizards of the Coast in 1998 and they produced a Dragonlance animated movie in 2008, which didn't step on the existing film rights by avoiding any potential areas of dispute. Earlier this week it was confirmed that Warner Brothers were developing a new big-budget movie with Solomon on board as producer.

Apparently this dispute has come up before and in a binding arbitration process, Solomon's ownership of the film rights was confirmed. Clearly Hasbro didn't accept the 'binding' part of that agreement and it's likely there will be further legal shenanigans before either film project can proceed.

D&D uses a lot of fairly generic fantasy material - elves, dwarves, wizards, clerics, dragons, lightning bolts, fireballs etc - but it does have some specific elements that likely would be affected by the issues, such as drow, beholders and specific spells like Melf's acid arrow. The rumour is that Hasbro has been working to bring some of the more popular D&D worlds and novels to the screen, such as R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt Do'Urden books, but it'd be impossible to do so without treading on areas covered by the existing film deal, which means they wouldn't be able to use them. It remains to be seen how this pans out.